Iowa Last in Big 10 Directors Cup: Does that Matter to You?

I'm just going to paste what I posted after the winter rankings came out (it applies to any seasonal or yearly standings as well):

The Director's Cup is a joke. Iowa doesn't have skiing, fencing, rifle (wtf?), men's ice hockey, women's ice hockey, or women's bowling (wtf again?). That's 6 of the 15 sports that make up the (winter) standings. We gain points over most schools on wrestling, but lose a bunch in other places we have no control over.

The top 20 or so are always (A) universities with massive enrollment (and thus larger AD budgets) and often statewide monopolies or, (B) a more average school that happened to have a very good year in select nonrevenue sports (ISU is in the same boat as us, but finished 25 spots higher because they had some success in women's gymnastics and women's track and field---that is the entire difference, for the most part, between the 25 spots). Many schools are automatically shut out of some points every year because they don't have one or more of the sports included in the formula (so the really large athletic departments gain points, even if their team in that sport is barely good enough to finish in the top half in a sport with very few teams).
 
I would not know what the Director's Cup is if it weren't the only reason ISU fans think they are relevant in the world of college sports.
 
The only thing that bothers me about it is that Iowa State finished ahead of Iowa. Pollard is probably putting that tidbit on his resume for the next time the Big 12 explodes.
 
college athletics is what irks me. football (and in some rare cases basketball) are the only self-sustaining sports. all others are a money pit. i can understand an olympic sport if you have a niche, and definitely inter-murals for fun activities, but to throw so much money at something like rowing? i guess i would only be for it if it didn't come out of the university's own pockets and was either privately funded or self-sustaining. this is where the title 9 controversy kicks in as you can't get rid of women's bowling without getting rid of something like men's baseball. anywho, that's my rant.
 
Hawk4Life25 said:
Rowing already has a state of art 8 million dollar facility. Enough spent on them for a long time.....

On top of that.....it was built in a flood plain.....genius idea.
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I believe the it was designed, everything of importance is at least 8 feet off the ground: electrical outlets, switches, etc. The only thing below 8 feet is the brick/concrete that makes up the structure. So if it floods, you go in, powerwash it, and you're good to go.
 
You gotta pick your spots. I would rather have specific titles over generalities any day. Titles like this are kind of comparable to the importance of statistics in a football game. They are interesting to look at after the fact but don't tell the real story and people that ultimately depend on them for argument sakes are generally the losers.
 
Pooker said:
You gotta pick your spots. I would rather have specific titles over generalities any day. Titles like this are kind of comparable to the importance of statistics in a football game. They are interesting to look at after the fact but don't tell the real story and people that ultimately depend on them for argument sakes are generally the losers.
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Well statistics are very useful in arguments (I use them all the time, particular when comparing players). But the Director's Cup is a joke, for reason already explained (we lose points for not having a lot of the sports in the formula).
 
During my 5 years at Iowa, I never once saw a lacrosse, x-country, baseball, field hockey, softball, track/field, golf, swimming or rowing event.

There was only so much time/money left after school work and working to dedicate to the minor sports.

I would glance at the scores if the DI published them.

If not, zero interest.
 
I want all of The University of Iowa's sports teams to do well, but couldn't care any less than I do about the Director's Cup...it's a paper championship to give schools who are good at non-revenue sports a reason to claim they're a player in college athletics when they're really not...

ISU fans...and Jamie Pollard, use it as propaganda on the rubber chicken circuit to try get over on Iowa, but that's about all it's useful for in most cases.
 
HawkeyeShane said:
I want all of The University of Iowa's sports teams to do well, but couldn't care any less than I do about the Director's Cup...it's a paper championship to give schools who are good at non-revenue sports a reason to claim they're a player in college athletics when they're really not...

ISU fans...and Jamie Pollard, use it as propaganda on the rubber chicken circuit to try get over on Iowa, but that's about all it's useful for in most cases.
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NACDA OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE - Directors Cup

Unless I missed a year, I cant find one year that ISU finished ahead of Iowa prior to this season.

And for the record I dont care about the Directors Cup. Like Shane said it would be nice to do well but it doesnt matter to me
 
Am I losing sleep over it? Naaaaaah. However, I basically grew up in the 80's when the Iowa Athletic department was top 25 in the nation, one could make the argument it was in the top 15. By the mid to late eighties even the women's field hockey team was a national contender. So having a well-rounded athletic department was a sense of pride for me.


I do get it- it is about the big boy sports now and wrestling. So being a well-rounded athletic department doesn't really mean that much anymore.
 
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